


i wanna hold your hand

by writtensoul



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: 5 and 7 to be exact, M/M, but they're kids, i dont know, is that what it's tagged as???????, kid!direction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-22
Updated: 2013-06-22
Packaged: 2017-12-15 17:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/852361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writtensoul/pseuds/writtensoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt: there's a field trip and louis is assigned as harry's "buddy" but he loses him and cries a lot but eventually finds him bc he hears harry crying for him too and they end up sharing lunch on the bus ride home okay byeeeeeeee</p><p><i>“The zoo!” someone shouts near the front, and Louis jumps out of his seat so fast he falls into the middle isle and then throws himself back onto the seats and crawls over Harry to get a good look out the window. He can see it.</i> Chester Zoo.<br/><i>“Chester Zoo, I’m coming for you,” Louis sings, and underneath him he can hear Harry’s high-pitched giggles. Today is going to be the best day</i> ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i wanna hold your hand

**Author's Note:**

> i got a prompt and here we are!!! i'm gonna start workin on the sequel to my cat fic now!!!   
> title from i want to hold your hand by the beatles  
> tumblr: stylinist

Today is The Day. Capitals, ‘cause Louis’ been waiting for this day his whole entire life. (Or two weeks, but _still_.) Today is the day where he gets to go to the zoo and that is just so darn fantastic that Louis doesn’t really know what to do with his body, he really doesn’t. He just bounces up and down while his mum packs his lunch of heart-shaped bread and a few Jammie Dodgers, ‘cause Louis asked really nicely at the grocer to get some and she said yes.

“Baby boy, you know you have to watch after your buddy, don’t you?” mum asks him, pushing his hair about on his head and she knows Louis doesn’t _like_ that.

“ _Yes_ , mum, his name is Harper or summin’,” Louis whines, pushing her hand off his head but pecking it quick because she doesn’t like it when he’s rough. He tries to be kind and gentle with people, he really truly honestly does, and he’s working on it. He knows that everyone in the whole world loves kisses, so he gives out quite a few.

Mum scoffs and pats Louis’ cheeks lightly. “It’s Harry, remember? He’s Anne’s son, and you’ve got to be nice because that’s what good boys do. You’re my good boy, right?”

Louis blushes and nods. Louis _is_ a good boy, or at least he tries to be. Some people just take his loudness and roughness the wrong way and get cross with him. “I am, mum. Now let’s go! It’s time to go! The dolphins and monkeys are waiting for me!” Louis skips around the island in the kitchen, grabs his bagged lunch on the way, and slips it into his Power Rangers backpack. It’s super cool, ‘cause it’s the green guy and that’s Louis’ absolute favorite.

Mum mumbles something about how the monkeys will take Louis in as their very own, but Louis ignores it and runs as fast as he can down the stairs to the front door. He stumbles at the last step and nearly face-plants into the green rug, but his hands catch himself and he hisses at how hard they slap down on the floor. He’s a big boy, though, ‘cause mum said so and he won’t cry over red hands.

His shoes are waiting where he put them the night before for this very occasion; they’re his red TOMS and he only wears them once and a while because mum says that his toes usually poke through the fabric at the front and that money doesn’t grow in the forest. Or on trees, or something.

“Na na na, do do do, monkeys monkeys monkeys, are gonna throw their poo,” he sings under his breath, holding onto the banister at he pushes his feet into his shoes and then he throws on his green jacket and he’s _ready_. Only, mum isn’t at the door with him, and that makes him grumpy because they’ll be late, okay, and he can’t have that. The bus’ll leave without him and even though he’s a big boy he’d cry at that. “Mum! Mum, come _on_!”

“Coming, impatient boy,” Louis hears his mum call, and Louis stomps his feet on the ground and hits his fist on the closet door until he sees her coming down the stairs. “Lou, stop that right now. You’ll wake up Lottie, and your dad’s only just gotten her down.”

Louis stops begrudgingly. There’s something comforting about loud noises to him, but he’ll stop because he knows that if Lottie starts crying, his mum will go take after her and they have to _gogogo_ , now.

The car ride there is very quiet except for Louis humming his new song to himself, because in the mornings mum doesn’t like to have the radio on. But when they get to the school, Louis sees everyone lined up in front of two big yellow busses, and he screeches at the top of his lungs. “Look! They’re going to leave _without_ me, oh Lord Jesus. Mum!”

Mum scolds him about using Jesus’s name in vain, but Jesus isn’t in Louis’ veins, or he certainly hopes not because that sounds like a big responsibility for a seven-year-old, and Louis breathes through his nose in whines until the car’s pulled up next to the busses.

“Bye, bye mum, love you mum,” he rushes out, leaning across the seats to kiss his mum, and he pecks him twice and tells him to have lots of fun and then Louis’ out the door, running as fast as a lightning bolt to his class and he doesn’t slow himself down when he crashes into Niall.

“Ouch!” Niall shouts, and when he sees it’s Louis the grumpiness on his face goes away and he gives Louis a big hug. Niall is very hug-y, Louis knows. The very first day they met Niall said he liked Louis’ backpack and gave Louis a big hug. They’re best friends in the whole world now.

“Hello, dork,” Louis says, raises his eyebrows twice because he can use bad words like that without his mum getting angry at him now, and then he notices a small boy beside Niall. Actually, he can see that every big kid is paired with a kindergartener and Louis should probably have his buddy with him.

“Louis,” Miss Cardle says in a whoosh of air and she looks kind of frantic. “We were near just about to pair Harry with another buddy! Come this way, sweets.” She puts a hand on Louis’ back and takes him to the very back of the line. That makes Louis angry because when he’s at the front of the line, he can run to the back of the bus and get the best seats. Now he’s going to get bad seats and he’s stuck with a baby.

There’s a very small boy waiting at the back of the line with his hands folded together in front of him, and his face is scrunched up like he’s trying not to cry or something. Louis knew with his luck his buddy had to be a _total_ baby, not just a kind-of baby. When the boy sees Miss Cardle walk up with Louis, he brightens and there’s a crater in his cheek.

“Wow! Hello, my name is Harry Edward Styles, only my mom calls me that when she’s angry, so you can call me Harry, or you can actually call me Cupcake Bubbles, because that’s my Neopet’s name, and I’m only allowed to play that game if my mom watches me, ‘cause she says—”

“Be quiet, you baby,” Louis snuffs at him, and he crosses his arms. Of course, Miss Cardle is still there and he points a finger right in Louis’ face.

“Don’t be rude, Louis Tomlinson, or I’ll have you be _my_ buddy all day. You don’t want that, do you?” she says, all cross and frowny, and Louis nods. Of course he doesn’t want to be her buddy. That would make him a _dork_.

When Louis turns around to apologize, Harry slash Cupcake Bubbles has his hands deep in his purple pockets and his face is scrunched right up again. Only this time there is a small tear on his cheek, and that makes Louis feel a little bit bad.

“Oops. I’m sorry, Cupcake Bubbles. I only told you to be quiet because I’m a little grumpy,” Louis tells him, reaching forward to pat Harry’s head twice and while he does that he looks up to Miss Cardle to get an approving smile. He gets one.

Miss Cardle nods and walks off to probably get everything else ready, and Louis keeps staring at Harry. He has really pale skin, kinda like soy milk, and his eyes are really bright because he’s just cried a little. All in all, he’s a cute baby and Louis feels like it’s a little bit his duty to be nice all day because cute babies shouldn’t cry and he feels bad for making this cute baby cry.

“How come you’re grumpy?” Harry asks him, picking up his Barney backpack that’s purple like his pants, and his nose scrunches up again. It’s not like he’s going to cry this time; Louis thinks that it’s maybe a nervous habit. Mum says Louis’ nervous habit is to tap his fingers on things.

“Well, because I wanted to be at the front of the line, and we’re at the very back.” Louis sighs and looks back to the front, where Niall is, and he can see that Niall is talking to Liam. It’s mostly one-sided though because Liam’s face is red and he’s biting his nails (more nervous habits) and he looks like he’s freaking out. Probably because he forgot to hand in his drawing assignment yesterday or something.

“What if I told you that I could get us to the very front?” Harry says, palms pressed together and fingers tapping against each other like an evil villain in Spiderman. That makes Louis laugh, loud and proud, and Harry beams like it’s the best thing he’s ever seen.

“I’d say you’re a big fat liar. And a dork.”

Harry raises his eyebrows and then takes off, his backpack trailing behind him, and he gets to the front of the line and Louis of course goes right after him.

“What are you doing?” Louis asks, breathing a bit harder, and he can hear the kids behind him whining about how he’s a cheater and a budder. He turns around and gives them the meanest look he can even think of, curling his lip and moving his eyebrows down. They get quiet.

“I got us to the front! See?” Harry puffs. He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a small inhaler, and he breathes out slowly and carefully before he raises the thing to his mouth and breathes in deep. Maybe he has a disease.

“Do you have a disease?” Louis asks rather rudely. HE knows his mum's taught him better, but woops. “I mean, uh. Well, do you?”

Harry shakes his head fast with the inhaler in his mouth.

“Are you sure?”

“It’s just asthma.”

Louis shrugs. The teacher’s whistle goes off then, and Louis instinctively turns away from it and gets ready to run away, because he usually acts badly to the teachers, but he knows that today he has to be good. Otherwise he’ll get sent home and he really, really wants to see the monkeys and dolphins.

“Alright, when the bus’s door opens, I want you all to walk in slowly and respectfully. I don’t want anything to happen like last time. _Louis_.” Miss Cardle is referring to the time the bus’s door opened and Louis ran in so fast he tripped and cut his knee open on the metal floor. It hurt, but he didn’t cry, and all the kids crowded around him the next day to look at his stitches and that was the day he became even cooler. Louis personally doesn’t think it was a bad thing to happen to him, but he doesn’t want to go to the hospital. Because monkeys and dolphins.

“Yes, miss,” Louis says distractedly, and then the doors open and Louis runs in slow motion to the back of the bus while everyone laughs at him—the good kind of laugh. He splays himself across the back seats and when Harry comes running to the back, he moves and Harry grins so wide and so happy that Louis has to smile, too.

“I’ve never been in the very back,” Harry says in awe, hugging his backpack to his chest. Louis gets a really big feeling of proud in his chest.

“Well, it was thanks to you we got here. You got us to the front of the line, remember?”

Harry nods.

The bus engine roars and rumbles, and then it starts moving and Louis kicks his feet against the seats in front of him and squeals. He’s so very happy, he just doesn’t know what to do. The kids in the seats in front of him turn around and look annoyed until they see that it’s Louis, and then they give a thumbs up and sit back down proper. Louis is glad sometimes that people act that way with him.

The bus drive is kind of boring; Louis is used to talking with all his mates and making loads of noise and laughs, and all Harry does is keep his mouth open wide and stare out the window. Louis’ been watching him the whole time. (Harry’s front teeth are very big, he notes.)

“The zoo!” someone shouts near the front, and Louis jumps out of his seat so fast he falls into the middle isle and then throws himself back onto the seats and crawls over Harry to get a good look out the window. He can see it. _Chester_ _Zoo_.

“Chester Zoo, I’m coming for you,” Louis sings, and underneath him he can hear Harry’s high-pitched giggles. Today is going to be the best day _ever_.

When they finally all pile out of the bus, they’re given a lecture on not running away and not feeding the animals anything other than what you can buy in the machines for twenty-five pence. Louis nods absently and looks all around, sees the big sign for Chester Zoo, and when a pigeon flies across the sky Louis pokes Harry and points at it. Harry giggles again.

Finally they’re divided into a few groups with an adult chaperone, and Louis is bouncing so high and spinning and then they’re _in_ , they’re into the _zoo_ , and Harry grabs a hold of his hand and grins really wide. Louis doesn’t shake Harry off, because Harry’s just a baby and that would be rude.

“Now children, never lose sight of your buddy, okay? If you get lost, know to find an adult and tell them.  Which animal shall we—”

“The monkeys!” Louis interrupts, hopping, and he starts to run laps around the small group, dragging Harry along behind him. Harry trips and falls though, and well—he starts to cry. Woops.

“My, my _knee_ ,” he cries, couching up in a ball and holding his leg close to his body. There’s a small scuff in the purple material and it’s barely _anything_ ; if it were Louis he wouldn’t even bat an eye. Harry’s just a baby though, so Louis sighs and sits down beside him while the chaperone tries to bud in.

“You’re okay,” Louis tells him, peeling Harry’s hands off of his leg and leaning in real close to eye the little rip in his jeans. It’s honestly nothing, but he still says, “Ouch, that’s a bad one. Shall I give it a kiss better?”

Harry nods with a sniffle and wipes his nose with the back of his arm. “Uh huh, please. It is—am I gonna be okay? Will they have to am, ampue, armpitake, ampuetake,” he stutters in a watery voice.

“Nope,” Louis says as he leans down to give a quick and soft kiss to the bony jut of Harry’s knee. Smells good, like fabric cleaner, so he gives it a few more kisses. “Only need a couple kisses, that’s all. Mum says that kisses make everything better.”

The chaperone gently pulls both Harry and Louis off the ground, saying that they’ve _only got a certain amount of time here, you know_ , and the group starts moving off toward the bird section. But Louis does not want to go to the bird section. He wants to see the monkeys.

“Um, miss chaperone, could we actually see the monkeys first?” he asks politely. He gets ignored. That makes him a bit angry, because mum taught him to never ignore people. It’s a bit stupid for an adult to go and do that very thing, isn’t it?

Harry seems to notice too because he grabs Louis’ hand again and hobbles near him. Louis notices that he’s hobbling on the leg he didn’t hurt, but whatever. Babies do that sometimes.

“Hey, do you think we should sneak away?” Louis whispers, leaning down while he walks and hikes his backpack back up his shoulder.

“Um, but that’s bad,” Harry whispers back, pouting a little. He probably worries about getting in trouble. Louis has never worried about that, because he’s really brave.

“You know what else is bad? Stealing a car.”

Harry gasps.

“That’s right, stealing a car. I’ve done that before. So now do you think going to see the monkeys and dolphins will be so bad?” Louis is talking about a toy car, but Harry doesn’t need to know that. He also doesn’t need to know that Louis was just a baby and it had been an accident and they returned back to the store to give the car back.

Harry shakes his head.

“Right then. Follow me.” Louis waits until the group is ahead a little bit, and then he grabs Harry’s little hand and runs the exact opposite way toward the monkey sign. Harry actually manages to keep up this time, and when Louis sees a group of trees he dashes to it and crouches behind the big one. They’ve successfully escaped.

“That was,” Harry gasps, “fun. Wow.” He takes out his puffer again and sucks in a few breaths, and then puts it back inside with its cap and smiles so wide at Louis that Louis can see all of his teeth. “Is it okay if I kiss you on the cheek?”

Louis startles. “Why would you do that?”

“Because, well, mum says that when you like someone you kiss them, so—”

“But you’re just a baby,” Louis interrupts, and then he pushes Harry over. Harry lands on his bum with an _oof_ and then his face crumples, and he cries out. Louis briefly remembers that he wasn’t supposed to let cute babies cry, and he sighs. “Sorry.”

Harry wipes his eyes with both his fists and looks up at Louis with wide, wet eyes. “It’s okay,” he snuffles all sadly. “I only wanted to be nice.”

“I guess you can then. Here,” Louis says, and he leans down and offers up his cheek to Harry. He feels wet lips attach to his face and hears a loud suction noise when the lips pull off, and it tickles so he laughs a little. “Okay, are we good now? Let’s go see the monkeys!”

Harry nods and gets back up from the floor with a grunt and then does a few jumping jacks, obviously excited. Louis is glad that Harry’s just as happy to go see the monkeys, because when people aren’t as excited as him he’s forced to think that there’s something wrong with them.

They dart between trees and signs and food stands on the way to the monkeys so they won’t get caught by an adult, and then they’re finally right in front of the monkey enclosure and Louis can hear the _ooh ooh ooh_ sof the monkeys and he can see them swinging from branch to branch by their very own _tails_.

“Harry, look at them!” Louis shouts, turning to look at Harry. Only Harry isn’t there. “Harry?” He does a full spin on his right foot, and sees Harry nowhere. He has lost Harry. His job was to be a good boy and _not_ lose Harry. “ _Harry_!”

He starts off away from the monkeys, because those furry brown beasts can wait, and he runs back to all the places they were last. He goes to the Banana Stand where they hid and Harry’s not there, and he’s not at the trees either. Harry’s vanished.

“Harry, come on,” Louis whimpers under his breath, still running to random places and not very much feeling like a Power Ranger. But he’s a big boy—he can find Harry, he can do it. Only his legs are getting tired, and his heart is beating faster than he can say Spiderman, and his lungs hurt. “Buddy, where are you?”

“Louis!”

Louis whips around and can see nothing, but he _knows_ that he’s just heard Harry’s little voice. He _knows_ it.  He runs closer to the cries and then he sees him; he sees Harry curled up in a ball under a park bench.

“Louis, please help me, I’m so lost, oh, Louis,” Louis hears from Harry’s red bitten lips, and he cautiously walks closer and pokes Harry on the back. The minute Harry feels it he startles and jumps onto his two feet. “Louis!”

“Hello, buddy,” Louis gushes, catching the small form of Harry into his arms, but he’s not all that strong yet so they both tumble to the ground giggling and Louis is _elated_. “Where did you go? I got to the monkeys and you were _gone_ —”

“Boys! You boys better get over here this instant, otherwise I’ll write you both up and you’ll be in so much trouble,” an adult sounding voice says, and Louis recognizes it to be _his_ adult chaperone.

“Ruh roh, Raggy,” Louis sighs, picking himself up off the ground and he helps Harry up, too. They’re in big crap, as mum would say.

When they get to the adult and the other kids, Louis gets a strong grip on his ear and is pulled even closer. It hurts, a lot, and even Louis isn’t a big enough boy to not make a hurt sound.

“What were you thinking, Louis? Taking a small boy with you? You two could have gotten _hurt_ ,” the adult scolds, yanking his head around by his ear, and when she lets go Louis cups it and walks to the edge of the group with his head downcast and his shoulders shrugged up. He feels pretty darn stupid.

“Hey, Louis, it’s okay,” whispers a small voice, Harry’s, and a little hand grips Louis’. “I had fun today, except getting lost. Just, from now on, I wanna hold your hand. So I don’t get lost again.”

Louis gives a weak smile and squeezes Harry’s hand. Oh, he does like Harry. “I promise I won’t let go this time,” he assures him.

The rest of the day is really great. The stop for lunch—Louis shares his Jammie Dodgers with Harry and Harry shares his orange juice—and they go back to the monkeys, and Louis screeches with them and at the dolphins he pretends to make fake bubbles with his mouth like the dolphins can do with their heads. Harry’s alongside him the whole time, holding his hand tight, and whenever Louis looks down to see if he’s having fun Harry is grinning and blinking right back up at him.

Louis concludes that today, in fact, _has_ been the best day ever.

(Ten years later when they come back to see the monkeys they’re holding hands again, and it’s for a different reason entirely. Louis isn’t complaining.)


End file.
